Hi, I'm Rachel! I hereby present 10 factoids about little old me.

1. I spent most of my life growing up in Melbourne, but I was actually born in Sydney, to which I returned at the age of 17. I use this technical Sydney nativism as a justification for the fact that I really do think Sydney has Melbourne eating its dust, to the disbelief of most loyal Melbournians I meet.

2. My name, 'Rachel', means 'ewe' in Hebrew, and my star sign (Aries) means 'ram' in 'I'm spiiiiiritual-but-not-religious-urban-theology'. Between them, I'm a full ovine set!

3. I've been told that the best-known Rachel was a character in the sitcom Friends, but I've never seen an episode - I'm more of a dystopic scifi girl.

4. My entire life, I've been miscalled 'Rebecca'. The spiritual-but-not-religious devil on my left shoulder would say that it's an indicator of some zesty past life.

5. I was once interviewed by a girl doing a PhD at my uni as an example of someone who is 'antifashion' or opts out of all fashionable trends in her attire. I don't know whether I should have taken it as a compliment at the time.

6. These days I write speeches full-time, but I spent the first two years of my working life working for politicians, where I learned to ply my trade. Don't hold it against me.

7. I studied literature at University, but to date I have read a lousy two books in the last twelve months (Anna Karenina and Utopia, for the record). 

8. By night, I'm a somewhat lukewarm student of the law. Sometimes I feel like the only thing getting me through is my passion for sifting through hundreds of pages of  juicy murder judgments. Dry cases showing forth some ludicrously abstract principle of administrative law, not so much. 

9. I am a total, unashamed, and encyclopaedic-knowledge-level fan of The Bachelor. Learning that my home country of Australia would be making its own version was quite possibly the ultimate teleological culmination of my life to date. Receiving no reply to my brilliantly fashioned 'please hire me to be on your production team' letter was very possibly the opposite.

10. I would love to know 10 facts about you, too.